Bushcraft Camp Weekends

Another excellent bushcraft camp weekend!

Its amazing how lucky we are to have such great company for the bushcraft camp weekends. Sadly Steve couldnt stay all weekend and as such missed a good night saturday but regardless, a great time was had by all. It was especially good to catch up with Brendan who passed the WEISS course with us in 2008.

Also special thanks and note goes to young Herby for his excellent home made chamagne and unburnt bannock on saturday night!!

Course Picture - WEISS 2009

Thanks to Chris Brickel for this excellent picture of the WEISS CLASS of 2009

Cutting Tools again ..............

Fate often has a hand in many of the events which shape our lives whether we except it ot not.



On the recent WEISS course fate certainly played me an Ace. Many years ago, when I first started out on the bushcraft trail I was (and still am) a big fan of Mors Kochanski. Unable to afford a expensive Woodlore knife I instead opted for the simpler knife Mors seemed to like.



This was the Original KJ Eriksson Mora knife with its red painted birch handle - a legendary knife even then, after all a knife that has been accepted by outdoors folks for hundreds of years seldom can be bettered by a new design made by folks who only weekend in the woods or have profit at heart!!



May trusty old KJ Eriksson saw me through many a bushy adventure both here, Sweden and Norway always there and always reliable.



Eventually I cut off the wooden handle and fitted a new antler one and made it a nice leather sheath "revamping" the old knife which I used continiously up until I designed the BFK!!



Since then many moons and miles have pasted, adventure fresh and friends old have all come and gone and like a greenhorn I had found myself floundering in a world where knife choice was vaste and confusing ............. last year I remember remarking to a friend how I envied her ability to wear and use a simple knife without feeling the need to own a "better" (read custom more expensive there) knife!



Well, not so long ago Mora knives of Sweden was born out of the marriage of Frost's and KJ Ericsson's - this union of the two top cutting tool makers in sweden promised to bring new and exciting tools to the market and as mentioned on this blog before tools of excellent steel quality at a sensible price!!!



Sadly it would also see the end of the KJ Ericksson brand ........... alas the memories soon fade!!



Then on this years trip to Sweden in a hardware store I found 2 KJ Ericsson's being sold off cheap - brand new - how could I resist??



One I put into service immediately the other I am saving (a draw queen!)



To my pleasure and delight the knife served me well in every area I could think of - excellent for carving triggers and spoons it also excelled at carving my dinner, lifting a hot handled billy off the fire, fire lighting ................ everything.



Harking back to my comments to my friend (as above) I thought "well why not? Why do you have to have an expensive knife? Is your ego getting in the way of your good sense? Good enough for Mors, good enough for you!"



And so there you have it - my new knife is a old style Mora ........... I have several £200 plus knives at home and while one or two maybe be as good in use, none are as practicle or so well priced as that simple classic!!



I pondered changing the scales again - making a new sheath - tinkering ............. but then I thought "no, whats the point?? A serious outdoorsman should have a tool thats functional, that can be used and if needs be, be used hard. A serious outdoorsman should be judged on what he can make with his knife not on who made it!" So I decided to leave it be - even the slightest customising makes the knife less of a tool and more of a thing, a statement ...... lessening it making it stuff. More to the point by keeping it simple I can happily give the tool as a gift and replace it if needs be - I can carry 10 in my sack and still be quids in over the custom carrier .......... and if (no matter how rare it might be) I should lose it or have it stolen, it'll not be the bank or my heart thats broken!



The urge to tinker has passed, now I have a knife that has served generations of outdoors folk, and served them well. I have a knife that professional outdoorsmen and those who live in the wilds trust - I have a knife that will meet all my bushcraft needs and more without carving a hole in my wallet!!



So impressed was I with my rediscovery of the simplistic pleasures of the past and the undeniable utility of this excellent knife I have decided to stock the entiure range on the Bearclaw Website so before you spend a fortune on a expensive knife ask yourself this, "Can generations of woodsman, men who actually depended on a knife to survive have been wrong?"



If your answer is no, then maybe you to should trust their judgement and try a Mora Classic - if your answer is yes ................ well I also have a few tins of Survival Dehydrated water I can sell you when you buy your expensive new knife!!

WEISS 2009

Vildmark and WEISS 2009.

Ah, Sweden my favourite course location. Tranquil lakes and majestic forests - no wonder even Ray Mears believes travelling the nature there to be close to a religious experience!

This year found us with a group of 34 eager students form one of Britains top public schools.

As well as a few of natures more amusing characters such as Malcolm the bushwacking squirrel and Woody the camp robber!

The courses themselves were great fun and generally weather blessed although a thunderstorm and a hailstorm did a lot to focus minds on the fact we werent out there simply playing!

Mornings were generally beautiful and with the lads all sleeping tranquil havens for the early riser!

The Vildmark course as always was a mix of skills and leasure time - as well as being a chance to "train up" the those needing a little extra dirt time ready for the WEISS!

Preben even took time out of his busy schedule to, aided by grandson Max, teach the students how to canoe and proform the airplane rescue - excellent to watch and impressive to see.

After a fun relaxing and highly educational week we turned up the heat (literally and weatherwise) and started the WEISS course!!

Working in pairs rather than individually we were very impressed to see ALL the students make fire in one of the oldest ways known to man. A great achievement in anybodies books even more so for 30 school boys who had never previously made fire by friction and a accolade to the excellent instructional skill and duty of care exhibited by Steve Wiggins, spent more than one mosi eaten night training the lads into the wee small hours!

The exercise phase saw the lads not only proving their survival and navigation skills but also testing their grit and determination with a grueling stretcher race and cas vac scenerio - showing great resourefulness they even built rafts to float the casualties to the final RV and potential rescue point.

As always once the signals were out and the teams had proved their survival skills and metal a rescue attempt was staged

While the teams "played" the old war horses swung the lantern

One of the beauties of Sweden in the good weather is the simplicity of campcraft - a sleeping bag and a bed of bushy lingon and your set for the night - a sweet bed, scented by nature herself and as comforting as a mothers embrace!

The WEISS course went well - the students were excellent - adapting to the nature with the ease of those who went before...........

Sadly, while a new high was set by the guys this year with the majority passing - we still had 7 poor souls who failed. Those who passed proudly recieved their badges knowing full well they earned the right to join that small, yet presdigious, group of outdoors folk who over the last 40 years have done the same.

Sweden's a callin'

Well dear reader the time is fast approaching for the Bearclaw, Nordic and Nordmarken groups to converge on Risviken Sweden.


Those of you who've seen Ray Mears Bushcraft episode in Sweden where he and Lars Falt camp on the side of a lake and cook char will be familiar with the type of terrian and I agree with old Mearsy on this occassion as camping out in a place like that is close to a religious experience - the clear waters and feeling of untainted wilderness turn such places into catherdals of bushcraft forcing our hearts to sigh with pleasure and our lips to whisper.

This year we have 34 students for both the Vildmark and WEISS courses - plus 5 staff so its a big course and busy time - good luck to all those attending the WEISS heres hoping you all pass and enjoy!!

For those who've never been and seen - heres a few pictures from previous visits.

Hope you enjoyed those ..................... will add more once I return from this years courses!!

Skool! ")

Greenhorn Weekend

This weekend saw us back in the woods for another Greenhorn course. The weathers God blessed us with stunning weather and Baccus blessed us with the company of a cracking group!!

The group was smaller than usual with only 5 students in the end as 3 cancelled, and of course myself and Steve Wiggins instructing.

The overall level of teaching and student succeess was very high indeed - will smaller courses be the way ahead? Maybe I certainly enjoyed the course and the campfire banter far more with 5 students than when we run the course at 16 odd people.

More importantly the instructor to student ratio was better (hence the high success) and after debrief on Sunday I like to think we sent away 5 new friends who also enjoyed the weekend not just for the course but for the warmth of the group they experienced.

Great weekend!!

Bushcraft and Survival instructors - frauds??

As a bushcraft and survival instructor of 10 plus years experience I am always very careful not to get caught up in the oh so easily world of believing the myth!! It's easy to fall into the trap of pretending your something your not to "increase or improve" your profile.

Many so called "instructors" seem to be ego driven, the wish to call themselves expert and thus maybe massage something missing from their life is very previlant in many cases.

Others blatantly make up a new persona for themselves, some pretend to be former poachers or try to built a picture of themselves as great men of the land, others pretend to be of a different social back ground or to be born a different nationality and others especially in the survival world pretend to have former service with specialist troops like the SAS.

All are wrong to do so in my book - to pretend to be something you are not and to take money under that pretense is immoral if not illegal.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/2445041/TVs-SAS-hero-Bob-Spour-is-a-fraud.html

Financial gain is a powerful motivator, instructors, guides, leaders and schools who allow greed to rule over them are doing a great disservice to their students and themselves.

SADLY I fear nay know Bob Sprout isnt the only instructor out there lying about their background and abilities which is sad in a world where a instructors reputation is tantamount.

Hopefully the Sun newspapers revelation will "encourage" the frauds at their to change their profiles and clean up their acts and so ensure that the potential student gets exactly what they pay for and are not conned into giving money under false pretenses and sold substandard courses or instruction as a result.